There is a peace of mind that only comes with cleaning your house top to bottom. Well, I made some strides in the direction of that peace this evening. I got home at about 6, household supplies in tow. I did all of my laundry, textiles and linen included; cleaned the bathroom and swept and mopped the kitchen floor; I dressed my bed in its late summer, nearly fall suit; I made an approximated version of chicken parmesan; I managed to find some baby pictures of myself that I've needed to find; and I conditioned my hair.

I'm hoping to wake up tomorrow morning and scour the kitchen counters and tidy up the office before heading off to an Os game with my mom and a friend of hers.

But back to these baby pictures. I felt a somewhat disconcerting sadness looking at myself at that young age, in that time before my earliest memories began. I marveled at how much was ahead of me--how much sadness I would feel that I had no way of knowing was coming. And it made me wonder if any of us could ever go forward knowing what sorrow awaits us. Even now, perhaps, I am years ahead of some great pain that will completely level me. But all I know right now is the ignorant bliss that has come with the satisfaction of cleaning my apartment on a Saturday night in late summer in 2006...